By Raphael Ekpang
The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Dr. Tony Ojukwu (SAN) has raised the alarm over the high level of children’s rights violation in Nigeria. This, he said, led to the dominance of the child abandonment in the February dashboard report of the commission.
Presenting his speech during the presentation of the February Dashboard report to the public on Wednesday in Abuja, Ojukwu said, no doubt Nigeria is facing social economic challenges which has impacted on the enjoyment of human rights, “The January dashboard which we presented last month revealed some interesting facts about the prevalence of domestic violence which had the highest percentage. The Feb. dashboard which will be presented to us shortly will reveal some interesting dimensional shift of violations revealing another category of victims who are worst hit by the data generated for the month.
“The February 2024 Dashboard is a graphic representation of the state of human rights in the country. Beyond being indicting, it rather presents itself as a guide and a measurement of our progress to realizing the human rights of every Nigerian. It provides information that will trigger a chain of multi-faceted actions on tackling insecurity, poverty, and inequalities in Nigeria. For instance, the upsurge in violence, killings and kidnappings recorded in February should concern every arm of our government.
“The dashboard will also galvanize good collaboration between the commission, our partners and all human rights actors in data sharing and open up spaces for interventions in particular areas of interest towards the advancement of the course of human rights in Nigeria,” he said.
However, the February 2024 dashboard board report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) as presented by the Senior Human Rights Adviser to the Executive Security, Hilary Ogbonna indicated that Child’s abandonment among other violation of children rights has taken over the center stage-recoding about 339 out of 550 cases of violation of children rights and overall complaints of 1484 cases of human rights violation across the country in February.
Ogbonna, while presenting the dashboard report states that the Commission received 1484 complaints in the month of February: 95 complaints from the State actors (security personnel and other government agencies), Domestic violence -370, violation of children rights -550, violence against non state actors -28, violence against private sector recorded 53 complaints and ESCR-145.
However, in the dashboard report most of the cases of child abandonment and violation of children rights generally are perpetuated at the North Central; such as rape and child defilement by care givers.
He noted that about 178 parents are responsible in children rights violation across the country.
Meanwhile, Ojukwu had earlier stated that the dashboard is another tool through which the commission seeks to exercise it’s mandate of human rights promotion, protection, monitoring and reporting. “It is hope that this dashboard process will assist the government in keeping tracks of its obligations to national, regional and international human rights instrument and mechanism.”
